(Düsseldorf/Oldenburg/Huntorf) – The energy suppliers EWE AG and Uniper SE have signed a cooperation agreement according to which they want to establish a hydrogen hub in Huntorf near Elsfleth in Lower Saxony. In the future, green hydrogen for industry and the mobility sector will be generated and stored there using wind power.
Uniper operates a compressed air storage power plant (Compressed Air Energy Storage, CAES) at the Huntorf site for emergency power supply and grid stabilization. EWE uses a natural gas cavern storage facility in the immediate vicinity. These are “the best location conditions,” says EWE CEO Stefan Dohler. In the future, cavern storage facilities could also be used for hydrogen storage and existing natural gas pipelines could be used to transport hydrogen.
Potential of 300 megawatts
The location's expansion potential is currently estimated at up to 300 megawatts. The individual expansion stages will be based on hydrogen sales. A focus of the project development is the close integration with the industry and its projects on site. “The first hydrogen customers could be supplied by the middle of the decade,” the company says.
Uniper also has the necessary grid connection capacity to integrate the electrolyzers necessary for hydrogen production into the power grid. The storage power plant is connected to the grid via high-voltage lines that lead to the windy regions to the northwest and northeast, says Uniper CEO Klaus-Dieter Maubach.
In addition, Huntorf offers the opportunity to use hydrogen in the future in highly efficient CAES and thus “to prepare necessary developments to solve the dark lull problem in the future energy system – based on predominantly fluctuating renewable electricity generation”.
Just a few days earlier, Uniper had announced that it wanted to establish a “national hub for hydrogen”. Wilhelmshaven build up. An import terminal for green ammonia and an “ammonia cracker” are planned. The commissioning of the new terminal is planned for the second half of this decade.
EWE is currently building in Rudersdorf a cavern around 1.000 meters deep near Berlin to test the storage of hydrogen.
deep link
https://www.uniper.energy/news/de/ewe-und-uniper-planen-wasserstoffhub-am-standort-huntorf
Photos
Huntorf power plant / © Uniper, Philip Eiben
